“When any new form comes into the foreground of things, we naturally look at it through the old stereos. We can’t help that. This is normal, and we’re still trying to see how will our previous forms of political and educational patterns persist under television. We’re just trying to fit the old things into the new form, instead of asking what is the new form going to do to all the assumptions we had before.”
How might this apply to the internet? To the way we gather?
I was recently at the Missional Learning Commons last week and one of the discussions we had was around thinking of new metaphors for the Kingdom. This commercial came to mind and I immediately searched for it on YouTube. For me, it depicts (in a caricature-esque way) how we are to be looking to join God in restoring our cities to places of compassion, love and justice. Enjoy!
I think Dan Meyer’s approach to learning is brilliant. What struck me is how the principles of his approach apply to all kinds of learning, not just math.
Do any these issues sound familiar when thinking about those attending our church gatherings? Lack of initiative / perseverance / retention / aversion to word problems / Eagerness for formula
Especially in our shifting culture, I think his suggestions for helping learners are relevant: Use Multimedia / encourage student intuition / ask the shortest question you can / let students / be less helpful
I firmly believe that we need to push ourselves to embrace new learning methods in our gatherings, especially Church gatherings. This starts with empowering our congregations to discuss, imagine, explore, visualize, interact, experience – rather than sit and listen to a lecture or performance.
Let’s lead the innovation towards deeper learning environments!
This is an interesting info graphic about how college students are using technology. I think it’s important to pay attention to how the emerging generations are being shaped by and shaping technology – in order to better understand them and create learning environments that they will engage in. (click on image for a larger version, thanks to michael novelli for the link).
I thought this was a pretty cool viral idea – let fans create it by upload pictures. I think this idea has potential for many different settings – I am specifically thinking about community gatherings.
Tomorrow, we head up to Cornerstone University with Michael Novelli and the rest of the team for MERGE 2011. Students and leaders will arrive Monday of next week, and we’re so happy to have a mix of new and returning groups joining us. As we’ve said on the blog before (and pretty much any time we talk about it), MERGE is one of our most favorite things we do each year.
One of the main reasons is that MERGE is a chance for us to take all that we are learning about narrative, experiential learning and creative communication, and use that learning to inspire us to try new things, new ways of learning and gathering. It’s the kind of stuff we think about and help other organizations with year round. But at MERGE, we get to personally be with student ministries for a week and do everything we can to help them truly experience God’s story, and find themselves in that story.
Another reason MERGE is a highlight for us is that the entire week is shaped by the students themselves. We don’t have a central communicator for the week. No one tells students exactly what they’re supposed to learn. Instead, we provide a wide range of creative experiences and a learner-centered environment where we trust God will speak directly to students throughout the day. As they go through the day, we have specific times when students share with one another what they are learning and how God has been speaking. In doing so, the students become the teachers of one another.
It’s really an amazing thing to watch, and we couldn’t be more grateful to be a part of this event!
I did a post last week about looking at the world through a smart phone.
I found this app that is a great example of how augmented reality technology is being implemented. By holding up your phone, you can see what famous movie scenes were filmed in that location. Pretty cool.
I’m continually surprised by how popular marketing campaigns disguised as viral videos are. In most cases, the videos spread because people though they were real, only to later find out they were ads. (I know I’ve been fooled by a few of them.)
I do wonder whether this fairly new form of marketing is sustainable, or if as the novelty wears off, consumers will start feeling like they’re being duped by marketers, rather than being cleverly marketed to.
At the same time, many of them are really creative. And trying to answer the “is or isn’t it real?” question can be really fun.
Any personal favorites of yours? If so, post in the comments section.
